A packinghouse is a facility where goods, such as fruit and vegetables, are received and processed prior to distribution to market. In the typical packinghouse, the goods are first received and then sorted based upon several factors, for example, size and quality grade. Once sorted, the goods are moved through the packinghouse via conveyor belts to labeler machines, which place labels on the goods.
During the label application phase of processing, the speed at which the labels are applied, the accuracy of the label application, and the space required by the labeler, i.e. the labeler footprint, may be important. Speed may be important because the fruit is to be packed and shipped quickly so that the shelf life in stores will be as long as possible. Accuracy, i.e. the successful application of the proper label to the corresponding fruit, may be important for allowing the packinghouse to process produce with a label applied thereto and because packinghouse profitability is adversely affected when a label that would have permitted a higher selling price is not applied to fruit otherwise capable of commanding such higher price.
Space may be important because of the physical configuration of a given packinghouse. The fruit can be transported in a series of lanes, each lane conveying the fruit on a plurality of cradles connected to a conveyor belt, each cradle supporting and locating an individual fruit. The fruit in each lane is sized by conventional methods and subsequently conveyed past a plurality of labelers arranged in series or banks, each of the labelers in the series of labelers being loaded with a different label, i.e. a label imprinted with indicia to identify the size and variety of the fruit. The physical arrangement of the packinghouse often limits, without major reconstruction of the building, the number of banks of labelers it is possible to install.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,427,746 to Anderson et al., assigned to the present application's assignee, discloses a labeler for labeling fruit and vegetables. The labeler may include a wheel with a plurality of extendable bellows affixed thereto for placing the labels, i.e. a bellows wheel. With this type of labeler, the bellows wheel rotates individual bellows past a magazine or cassette, which dispenses the labels from a carrier strip. The labels are held in position on the end of the bellows by application of a vacuum to the bellows that is pulled through openings in the end of the bellows. The vacuum also serves to maintain the bellows in a retracted position. As the bellows wheel is rotated, thereby moving a bellows with label dispensed thereon to an application position adjacent a fruit, positive pressure is applied and the bellows is extended to contact the fruit and apply the label thereto. Although the bellows wheel type labeler has desirable advantages and features, such a labeler may have certain drawbacks.
More particularly, in labelers of this type, the bellows wheel typically comprises an inner housing, and a rotatable outer housing, the bellows being affixed to the rotatable outer housing. The interface between the inner and rotatable outer housings may include a precisely machined bearing surface that has tighter, more demanding tolerances and is expensive to manufacture. Moreover, the housings are typically annealed for durability, which adds to the cost of manufacture. Another potential drawback to this bellows wheel labeler is a substantial maintenance schedule, since the bearing surface is subject to constant wear.
Moreover, since the tolerances between the inner housing and the rotatable outer housing are tighter, the material of these parts are matched in thermal expansion coefficients to maintain efficient operation when the labeler's temperature increases. Accordingly, the bellows wheel may have to be manufactured in materials having low coefficients of thermal expansion and/or, the labeler may have cooling features to maintain a normal operating temperature.
The typical bellows wheel labeler includes a remote external air supply for creating the vacuum and positive pressure for respectively retracting and extending the individual bellows. The remote air supply may be coupled to a plurality of labelers via tubing. The external air supply may not be desirable in applications for a low number of labelers or where the labelers are in remote locations in the packinghouse, since this may increase packinghouse layout complexity.
Furthermore, the use of the external air supply may increase the lead-time for new labeler installations. Also, the external supply, for example, a blower, may heat the air supplied to the labelers, which may overtime stress the components of the bellows wheel and reduce reliability. Additionally, the bellows wheel labeler may use a complex design to manage and schedule the application of positive pressure and vacuum to the individual bellows.